Jawed Khurshid
Tinsel town’s glittering glamour sprouts from haute couture. The fashion capital of the nation, Mumbai, churns out shimmering attires displayed by droves of gorgeous lass sashaying down the ramps in varied fashion shows rocking this metro. ‘Indian women are behind my art. Every women have contributed their bit to my art’, said 46 year old Azeem Khan, designer par-excellence. Every angle of feminine beauty is a new experience for designer’s world.
“At the close of the 90s I have come full circle in the growth of my creativity… The seeds sowed by me have sprouted.” When you have a concrete scheme of fashion designing and knitting technology, the designs are bound to be arresting. Azim Khan has studied both sides of the fashion coin and yet he thought of going into an unexplored field of garment designs in India – women’s wear.
An alumnus of the prestigious Institute of Fashion Technology College, New York he happened to work under a celebrated fashion designer of the United States –Jeffery Beny. Unlike the past, when full length mirrors reflected richly embroidered, ethnic wear for women, the designs stores now witness a whole new line developed by Azim… oriental as well as western wear for women.
Designing clothes, for Khan, has been something of a cakewalk. So it was much easier for him to make headway in the industry. When asked how he landed here he revealed that as a science graduate he wanted to become a doctor but could not make it. I was sucked into our ancestral profession – Zari (hand embroidery) – and developed proficiency in it. Later joined a fashion institute in New York –studied for four years and got student of the year award in New York.
Not only did he design attires for Hollywood honchos and actors but also got an opportunity to design for former US Prez’s wife Hillary Clinton. His homecoming to Mumbai won many laurels for his seductive designs. The fashion world, here, was hypnotized by his magic touch. ‘I designed a lot that created ripples in the fashion industry, but what I designed for my mother was simply incredible’, exclaimed the mama’s boy. According to him the designing depends a lot on an individual who wears it. ‘Both are made for each other: Design and the one who wears it’, he observed.
Azeem recalled that when he landed in Mumbai, he was asked to prepare a dress for a socialite and page3 lady Maureen Wadia. Maureen participated in a function in New Delhi donning Khan’s designed attire. ‘That was a turning point in my life as I bagged the recognition of a best designer’, he proclaimed. And the claim is plainly no idle boast.
